Referencing Hamas leaders while visiting the region, the defense minister said that “they are not the ones missing electric power, nor food nor medications.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed into the leaders of Hamas accusing them of manipulating the poorest of Gazan society to take up arms against Israel and using collected taxes to stock up on weapons instead of working for the well-being of their population.

“We will not invest a dime in their place,” Liberman said while visiting the Gaza region on Tuesday , “to improve their health system or to provide them with water or power, we will not fill their shoes.”

“It must be understood that poverty and terrorism go hand in hand. Hamas is preventing economic growth in Gaza,” Liberman said. “They can only recruit terrorists and suicide bombers via poverty and despair so Hamas is doing all it can to maintain poverty and despair,” he said.

The visit took place two days after four IDF soldiers were wounded, two severely, when an improvised explosive device was detonated against troops operating near the Gaza border fence.

In response the IDF struck 18 Hamas targets in Gaza three days ago. Hamas did not attempt to fire rockets into Israel during that time.
Responding to a question from a reporter about how the defense establishment is able to carry on under the current government when it seems that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to address various claims concerning his alleged corruption, Lieberman said that “these things are not related, the government functions, the cabinet is working and making decisions and this is what matters.”